Stock Upgrades: Wall Street Looks to Wal-Mart for Lift

Wall Street ratings agencies set the tone for today's stock market.

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The late, great folk singer Pete Seeger was no fan of Wall Street, but yesterday you could have built a mightily impressive long/short portfolio in his honor. "If I had a hammer" pretty much nailed it as the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (NYSEARCA:ITB) jumped 3.81% on the back of an S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX)-best 9.84% increase in homebuilder D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI). "Where have all the flowers gone?" My friend, they're still here, even in the depths of January, to judge by a 6.60% gain in 1-800-Flowers.com (NASDAQ:FLWS). And as for "Turn! Turn! Turn!" that is an eerily accurate description of the whipsaw action in Herbalife (NYSE:HLF), which fell 14.45% last week, rose 6.66% on Monday, and tumbled 2.37% on Tuesday. Mr. Seeger's fellow beatniks Peter, Paul, and Mary, meanwhile, were similarly on the money with "Leaving on a Jet Plane." Presumably to some dodgy offshore tax shelter in the Caribbean, where Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) now flies, for that stock's analyst-inspired 3.40% winnings were certainly worth sheltering from the authorities. All this put a mighty wind in the sails of the stock market, with the Dow (INDEXDJX:.DJI) snapping a five-session skid in some style. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), up 2.56%, bested all blue chips. This, despite a 10% plunge in sales of its primary care drugs, mainly on account of stiff generic Viagra competition in Europe. It seems that an aging "Italian stallion," famous for his "bunga bunga" sex parties and a hitherto rich income stream for the pharmaceutical firm, has finally conceded defeat to Old Father Time. Corning (NYSE:GLW) slumped 6.15% after its unfortunately named CFO James Flaws admitted in an interview that the company's weak Gorilla Glass sales were, "A little bit of a surprise." An utterly unlovedApple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which is all about glass houses, slid 7.99% in sympathy. But Mary Barra, shatterer of glass ceilings at General Motors (NYSE:GM), fared far better under the Capitol dome.

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